Lot 34: ins and outs, 2000

ins and outs, 2000
Acrylic, thread and wool on canvas.  198 x 330 cm. (78 x 130 in).   Signed and dated 'MICHAEL RAEDECKER 2000' on the overlap.

 London, The Approach, ins and outs, 6 May - 18 June, 2000; London, Tate Britain, Turner Prize 2000: Michael Raedecker, 25 October, 2000 - 14 January, 2001

 Exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, Turner Prize 2000, London, 2000, n.p. (illustrated); K. Bush, 'Flatland,' Frieze, Issue 54: September-October, London, 2000, n.p.; M. Thain, 'Chilling Out at the Tate,' Socialism Today, Issue 52: November, London, 2000, n.p.; D. Eggers, 'Their Second Home,' Parkett, Issue 65, Zurich, 2002, p. 126 (illustrated)

 The Approach, London

The art of Michael Raedecker is unique. No other artist has combined thread and paint in such a relevant and powerful manner.The delicacy of his virtuoso needlework found throughout his heavily layered mixed media canvases renders his oeuvre sculptural as much as painterly.The haunting yet familiar scenes in Raedecker's paintings are influenced by the cinematography of David Lynch, Surrealist photography and the suburban American landscape. Capturing the essence of Raedecker's oeuvre, the present lot, an early and monumental canvas entitled ins and outs,is of special importance  to the artist as he personally selected it for his critically acclaimed 2000 Turner Prize exhibition.
Often starting his paintings using culled images of ideal homes found in glossy magazines and sales brochures, the art of Michael Raedecker is an amalgamation of a wide range  of source material and artistic influences. Inheriting the long and rich tradition of Dutch landscape painting, Michael Raedecker depicts  unpopulated,sparse  wastelands using a heavily reduced palette. In ins and outs,the brightly illuminated garage  of an isolated suburban home isframed by a receding line of perfectly pruned trees with a few haphazard rocks in the driveway.The scene is set at twilight with the only hint of human presence being the brilliant intensity of light emanating from the garage door, a virtuoso  visual effect created using countless layers of pink and yellow threads.The  viewer is thrust upon this eerie setting as an intruder possibly on the verge  of witnessing a horrific event in the silence and stillness of the night.Just as in the suspense of psychological thrillers, there is a clear tension, a haunting anticipation in the moment depicted. Unlike film however, this is a still image so it is left to the viewer to imagine the outcome of this loaded scene.